Using dung cakes, ‘desi’ geysers bring relief in biting cold at Tikri

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, January 3

The indefinite protest of farmers at the Delhi borders has seen many firsts, including the optimum use of ‘desi’ geysers, manufactured in Punjab with little expertise.

It is the first time that a ‘desi jugad’ has got such a huge response as a majority of people are getting hot water from these self-made machines, which deliver 14 liters of hot water with around 2 kg waste, including papers and empty plastic bottles and two-three dung cakes.

“Our desi geysers are the only source of hot water in this biting cold. They are running round the clock and delivering hot water to thousands of farmers,” said Rampal Sharma, a BKU (Ugrahan) leader from Sangrur district. Sharma has been at the Tikri border since the start of the agitation.

Along with ration, warm clothes and making all arrangements in their modified trailers, some farmers had taken these geysers with them. But once they realised that their Delhi protest would not end soon, many called up their families and got delivered more geysers to the Delhi border.

“I have participated in many agitations earlier, but it is the first time that I have seen the use these geysers in such a huge number,” said Jaswant Singh, a farmer at the Tikri border.

Apart from families of farmers, many NGOs are also sending the geysers in large numbers as they know that hot water is the basic need these days.

“Since its manufacturing is cheap and our inexpert mechanics are also manufacturing these, we have enough machines now. Anyone can take them as per his requirement from our stock for free,” Gobind Singh, another farmer, said.